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| The Gensifer Clan |
This past August as part of my celebration of Jack Vance's fiction, I wrote a story called "The Gensifer Clan" that began on the planet Ottengla, but ended on Zeck, a world of Alastor Cluster and the home of Jantiff Ravensroke. Azynov and Yōd are using the AR Simulator to investigate the origins of human telepathy.
Azynov and Yōd had promised Colleen that they would visit Ottengla and gather data for Colleen and Shery on the capacity of micro-hierion
fields to modulate the telepathic connections between the blind residents
of Ottengla. However, after only a brief visit to Ottengla, Azynov and Yōd were hustled on to Zeck. Had they learned anything of value during their brief visit to Ottengla?
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| The Power of Pause |
The story below on this page, the first half of "The Olive Intervention", continues immediately after the events in "The Power of Pause". Azynov, Yōd, Glisten and her husband Jantiff go to Yerophet and begin to investigate the telepathic Kerub.
⎯ The Olivine Intervention
Part 1. Black Star
Jantiff allowed Yōd and Azynov a few minutes to celebrate the revelation of Yōd's pregnancy. Finally, Azynov thought to ask, "How do you know that you are pregnant?"
Yōd as not entirely sure. She tried to explain, "This afternoon I had a visitation. I got to meet R. Nyrtia."
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| Nyrtia appears to Yōd |
"I don't think so, but she scrambled my memories and I'm not entirely certain exactly what happened when she appeared on the beach." Yōd looked at Glisten's cat. "I remember that I was walking with Olive then..." She fell silent, straining to unscramble her memory paths.
Jantiff asked, "Who is this Nyrtia?"
Azynov waited for Yōd to answer, but he saw that she was lost in thought. Azynov replied to Jantiff, "Positronic robots made use of Alastor Clustor to selectively breed telepathic humans. The rumor is that R. Nyrtia was in charge of that telepathy development project. However, Nyrtia is very secretive... until today, I always imagined that she might be a mythical figure."
"Well, I can't allow myself to be distracted..." Jantiff jumped to his feet and proclaimed, "I'm going to activate the autopilot. We can delay no more. Off to Yerophet!"
Azynov followed Jantiff to the command cabin. Glisten went to Yōd and they threw their arms around each-other. Within just a few hours, they had each learned that they were pregnant. Glisten then sat back and said, "Serves you right, Yōd, after lecturing me how I should not be traveling due to my pregnancy."
Yōd shrugged. "We are in this together. I only want to make sure that this mission on Yerophet is safe for us all."
Glisten frowned. "So you say..." Glisten was young, still in her teens, but she had powerful telepathic abilities and could sense the fringes of Yōd's thoughts. "...but I sense that you are driven by your quest for knowledge. Nothing will stop you from learning the hidden secrets of human telepathy, not even concern for the safety of your own unborn child."
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| Yerophet |
"Tell me about Yerophet." Glisten kept hold of Yōd's hand and let their fingers interdigitate. She closed her eyes and tried to link telepathically to Yōd at a deeper level, inside Yōd's mind where she could feel the presence of recent memories of having been on Yerophet. "Is it really dangerously cold?"
"Not if you take sensible precautions. However, it appears that the Kerub can take control of human minds. As Shermatz told you and Jantiff, there have been cases of people going outside in the cold, without protective clothing, and freezing to death."
Glisten asked, "Why would the Kerub do such a thing?"
Yōd suggested, "Possibly they resent having human settlers on their planet... the continually expanding human population keeps pushing further into what were once territories inhabited by the natives."
Glisten opened her eyes and whispered. "I'm not sure that is the problem."
Jantiff and Azynov returned to the lounge. Jantiff said, "Come look at the stars."
They all went to the port observation room and saw the stars flowing past. Yōd asked, "How long will it take us to reach Yerophet?"
Azynov replied, "This is a fast ship, we will arrive in about 16 hours."
Jantiff told Glisten, "I've sent word to Shermatz, warning him to expect us."
Yōd debated with herself how much she should tell Jantiff and Glisten about the future. And Yōd wondered: how much do I even know? Their futures had already been altered by the arrival of Azynov and herself from outside. There was one thing that Yōd knew for sure. "Azynov and I know one of the Kerub, so that will give us a good place to start."
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| lo'Whots |
Azynov chuckled and turned his eyes away from the shifting stars of the Cluster and towards Glisten's large, pretty eyes which seemed to glitter yellow in the dim light of the observation room. "It is complicated. We have explored events on Yerophet at a future time. So, lo'Whots does not yet know us at this point in time."
Yōd added, "In the future, lo'Whots will cooperate with humans to solve the problematic telepathic interactions between the Kerub and sensitive settlers."
Jantiff suggested, "I really should share all of this information with Ryle Shermatz."
Yōd warned Jantiff, "I'm not sure that would be wise. In the future that I've seen, there was no indication that the Whelm had involved itself with events on Yerophet until later, during a housing crisis. And from what I heard Shermatz say, he would really prefer that Glisten deal with the Kerub. If you tell Shermatz and the Whelm about lo'Whots then it might derail everything... mess up the future and make things worse!"
Jantiff shrugged. "You put me in a difficult position."
Glisten took hold of Jantiff's arm, "No, Janty, that is my job. In fact, I'd like to see what you can achieve inside that two-person sleeping bag that we have in our cabin." She kissed Jantiff rather passionately. "I sense that Yōd is correct. We will make use of Shermatz and the Whelm forces as backup and for logistical support. Just ask them to have warm clothing, supplies and base of operations ready for us when we arrive." She turned to Yōd. "Can you at least give us a hint? On what part of Yerophet will we find this Kerub, lo'Whots?"
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| image source |
Jantiff took out his comlet and began composing a short message to send through to Yerophet. Glisten told Yōd, "Now, if you will excuse us, Janty has some unfinished business from this morning." She fluttered her fingers, winked at Azynov and led Jantiff away even while he was still using the comlet.
"Poor Glisten has not forgotten that we interrupted her love making this morning." Azynov put an arm around Yōd and asked, "Do you want to see your new sleeping bag?"
Yōd moaned, "Oh, my aching back. Am I really expected to sleep on the floor in a sac?" She slipped a hand inside Azynov's pants and felt his semi-erect penis. "If this is a simulation, why can't we simulate a nice big bed..."
"Well, if you insist, we could pop ourselves back to that nice hotel on Zeck... but if Jantiff and Glisten can rough it, so could we."
Azynov led Yōd to their room and showed her the big inflated air mattress with two sleeping bags on top that he had prepared earlier when she was out walking with Olive. "These bags can be zipped together."
Yōd checked the environment controls and adjusted upwards the heating of their room. "Who needs sleeping bags? I plan to generate plenty of heat." Her only serious concern was if the air mattress would withstand the exercises that she intended to put Azynov through.
The next day, as the Black Star slipped into orbit around Yerophet, Glisten began to feel weak and had to close her eyes. She told Jantiff, "I can sense the... Kerub?" Her brow was deeply furrowed with doubt and she bagan to massage her temples.
Jantiff checked with the autopilot and said, "Landing formalities are usually strict for Yerophet, but Shermatz is pulling some strings. We should be on the ground in less than an hour."
Yōd asked Jantiff, "Is it normal for Glisten to..." She could sense that Glisten was not enjoying her telepathic contact with the Kerub.
With concern in his voice, Jantiff replied, "No. I've never seen her like this before."
Glisten said, "I'm fine. The Kerub are powerful telepaths. I'm trying to develop a shield so that I can sort out individual..." She did not want to mention that she was being told by the Kerub to stay away from Yerophet.
Azynov muttered, "I've never understood the distance limitations on telepathy." He said to Yōd, "I thought that lo'Whots and the other Kerub needed close physical proximity to make telepathic linkages."
Jantiff demanded, "What are you saying? The Kerub are attacking you?"
"No." Glisten tried to relax and breath more easily. "They are warning me that it is dangerous for me to visit Yerophet... just as Yōd and Azynov warned me."
Jantiff suggested, "Maybe we should wait here in orbit."
Yōd added, "Azynov and I can go down first while you two stay here."
Glisten opened her eyes and unsteadily rose to her feet. "Don't be silly." Jantiff held on to her, giving her stability. "I'm going down."
Jantiff complained, "You are dizzy, you can't even stand straight."
"I'm learning to sort the Kerub data stream. It is very complex cognitive process and that is taking my full attention." Glisten kissed Jantiff's cheek. "Also, I'm a bit tired from you bouncing me around in that sleeping bag all night." She pulled on his arm and said, "I want to watch the planet fall."
They all went to the observation port. Jantiff said, "Deorbit starts in five minutes."
They were in low orbit and part of Yerophet hung before them, mostly vast tracts of ice and gray forestland. Glisten again closed her eyes while they waited. "The Kerub have long been broadcasting a plea for help into the Phari network... that is why Janty was sent to get me..."
Yōd asked excitedly, "You can decode the Kerub telepathic transmissions?"
Glisten shook her head. "Not really. There is someone else... translating. But I'm only getting the main idea... the Phari created me and sent Janty to get me..."
Jantiff laughed nervously, "What are you saying?"
Jantiff asked, "Infites?" He followed Glisten's gaze and looked at Yōd. "What does that mean?"
Glisten looked pleadingly into Yōd's eyes and asked, "What are infites?"
The Black Star tilted and began falling towards Yerophet. Yōd glanced briefly at the great gray and white planet and then replied, "Nanotechnology. For technologically advanced peoples like the pek, infites provide a way of transferring memories into a person's brain."
Glisten nodded slowly. "Yes. Now I understand. Yerophet is to be my school, this is my..." She placed a hand on her abdomen. "My baby's training mission."
"Your baby?" Azynov was alarmed to hear that Glisten's child was the target of the alien telepaths. "Training for what?"
"I can't quite see it, but I have the feeling that we will one day... after the children are here... we'll go to another world where I can actually meet... well, communicate with the Phari." She looked around at the the faces of Jantiff, Yōd and Azynov. "There will be an end to..."
Azynov asked eagerly, "An end to what?"
Glisten said with confidence: "Your search."
The landing went smoothly and Black Star settled into the snow beside a house on a wind-swept hillside twenty miles from the Kerub frontier. Jantiff looked out at the snow and said, "The snow does not look too deep, but it is very cold out there."
The side door of the house opened and out came a man, carrying a pair of large rectangular boxes, one in each hand. Jantiff opened the cargo hold and they met the household servant, Uro. "Welcome to Yerophet, you can call me Uro." He opened the boxes and showed them clothing inside. "Dress warm, it is a cold day." The four new arrivals on the planet quickly pulled on the protective clothing then the hatch opened again.
Azynov asked Uro, "The cold does not bother you?"
Uro explained, "Sir, I am a robot. I was designed to function efficiently at the temperatures found on the surface of this world." Uro led the way out of the cargo hold and they all walked out onto the surface of Yerophet.
Reaching the edge of the hatch, Glisten bent down and picked up Olive and then soon they were across the snowy yard and into the house where they were quickly given a tour of their new base of operations by Uro. Yōd was intrigued by the big hot tub that was on the back porch of the house. She asked Uro, "Isn't it too cold out there to be enjoyed?"
"Not often." The robot threw a switch and a bank of infrared lamps positioned above the tub came on and glowed a deep red. "If there is a strong northerly wind then it can become difficult for humans to tolerate the cold."
On the second floor, there were bedroom suites for both couples and closets full of new clothes for them to wear. Uro said, "If anything is lacking, let me know. Now, change into something comfortable and I'll prepare hot drinks."
Five minutes later they were back down on the first floor, in the great-room which had a fine view across a snowy field towards the Verilynn Mountains. Uro served steaming hot drinks from silver pots and turned on the holographic fireplace which emitted synthetic sounds and images of a fire as well as real infrared radiation. Soon the room was quite warm, but ominous gray clouds began racing up the distant foothills, sweeping from south to north, eventually obscuring their view of the mountains.
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| A Yerophet snowcat. |
Jantiff asked Uro, "Did you recently move in here? Are you familiar with the surrounding area?"
Uro replied, "I've worked here as house-tender ever since Snarlwood II was built, about five years ago."
"Snarlwood?"
"That's the name of this house. There was an old ranch house here originally, the original Snarlwood, but it was taken apart and replaced by-" The robot gestured to the current house that surrounded them. Uro tapped on the silver tea pot. "Refills?"
Jantiff allowed Uro to refill his mug then asked, "You work for the Whelm?"
Uro shook his head. "No. This is a now a rental house, part of the public housing system... the ongoing government effort to shift more people from Capetown into rural areas. City dwellers who are investigating the possibility of moving to the frontier are allowed to vacation here. However, I understand that the Whelm bought the current two week rental contract." Uro pointed to a painting on the wall. "In the old days, I worked on the ranch, having been brought in from Triskelion because of the labor shortage... the shortage of humans able to survive and work outside in the cold of this world."
Jantiff looked around, "Not for a while now."
Glisten went to search the house. Soon everyone was called into the hunt, but the cat could not be found. It was growing dim outside as night approached and now it was snowing. Azynov asked Uro, "How are we to get around? I can't see us using the yacht." He gestured out the window at the looming bulk of the Black Star that looked quite ridiculous parked outside in the snow.
"The locals use a network of underground tunnels, but it is cold down there and easy to get lost." Uro suggested, "You can rent an aircar."
Jantiff told Azynov, "Shermatz has informed me that an aircar will be here in the morning, available for our use."
"That does us no good now." Glisten asked Jantiff, "Can we use the Black Star to search for Olive? She can't have gone far."
Yōd asked, "How could the cat have gotten outside?"
With complete seriousness, Glisten replied, "Olive can walk through walls."
Azynov pointed out the window into the gloom, "What is that?"
A moving smear of light was seen which soon resolved into a bounding cat. "Olive!"
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| plesypy-human hybrids |
Olive went across the room and curled up right in front of the holographic fireplace. Laughing and chatting in relief at Olive's return, the four human guests at Snarlwood again seated themselves near the fireplace and then Uro served a light supper.
Olive briefly roused herself to eat from a bowl set out by Uro then returned to her warm spot by the fire, now seeming to stare across the room at Glisten.
Suddenly, Glisten looked up from her plate, chewing a chunk of pineapple and she gazed intently at Olive. Uro was re-filling glasses. Glisten said, "Tell me, Uro, what is a snowcat?"
Glisten could see the answer to that question in her mind, even as she spoke the question. The Yerophet snowcats were a modern re-instantiation of genetic patterns derived from an ancient devolved form of native life, the Phet.
Uro replied, "When humans arrived on Yerophet, there was telepathic contact with the natives, who were never seen... they always pulled back from contact with human settlers. Then some settlers from Ottengla, Plesypy-human hybrids, arrive in the Frost Hills area. Soon thereafter, snowcats were seen prowling the hill country and then, a generation later, the earliest sightings of Kerub occurred."
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| Ebernal |
Azynov thought about Ebernal, the telepathic hybrid they had met on Ottengla. He asked Glisten, "Human-Kerub hybrids?"
Glisten shook her head and peered deeply into her new memories. Those memories had been provided by the infites that she'd recieved from Olive. Glisten thought that she was experiencing a breakthrough in understanding the flow of information in the Phari telepathy network, what she imagined to be telepathic signals coming from the Yer. "When humans arrived on this world, the most sensitive telepaths among the settlers could sense two different types of telepathic signals, what became known at the Yer and the Phet. I have telepathic contact with the Yer, which is just like linking to the Zee on Zeck: a planetary mind that is part of the Phari network. The Kerub are different... they are Phet-Plesypy-Human hybrids."
Yōd giggled, gazed at Olive and mused, "Human settlers had sex with snowcats?"
Glisten suggested, "There is something wrong with the Phet. They have still never been seen. I can't fathom how they shifted their genes into the settlers, creating hybrids..."
Azynov and Yōd popped out of the simulation. Yōd said, "Take us back to the time when the first settlers from Ottengla arrived in Frost Hills."
Azynov adjusted the controls of the Asimov Reality Simulator an they went back 160 years into the past. They were inside the original Snarlwood, a caribou ranch that was owned by settlers from Ottengla and included Human-Plesypy hybrids who served as ranch hands, tending the caribou herd. Azynov used his control of the Simulator to quickly moved them from room to room through Snarlwood and then year to year. Finally, they found a hidden room under the stables that was an underground genetics engineering lab. There, they witnessed the birth of a snowcat. The blue-furred Human-Plesypy hybrid who gave birth to the snowcat looked up from tending to the newborn creature and asked Azynov and Yōd, "Who are you?"
A moment later, two humans with blue skin and tails entered the birthing room. One immediately began washing the newborn snowcat, the other asked Yōd, "How did you get in here?"
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| Asimov Reality Simulator |
The mother of the snowcat, herself a Human-Plesypy hybrid, got to her feet and said, "I was provided with Phet gene patterns, electronic records from the ancient times when there were still biological Phet." Yōd felt a telepathic pressure from the mother, willing that Yōd depart.
Yōd told Azynov, "Of course... we should have guessed. No Phet were ever seen because they have long been extinct." She told Azynov: "Take us back to the future!"
Azynov took them back to Snarlwood II, at the time and exact place in the AR Simulator where they had previously been. Jantiff chuckled and muttered, "Invisible Phet?"
Yōd explained, "The Phet are not invisible, they are simply nanoscopic, too small to be seen." She suspected that a Phet may have entered into Glisten, taking up residence inside her brain.
Glisten was continuing to process information from her infites. "The only problem with the Kerub was the temperature problem. They prefer cold and can't tolerate the kind of warmth that we humans enjoy. During the brief summer, the Kerub stay below ground, in their tunnels, down within the permafrost. Every time an attempt is made to move a Kerub into a human habitation, doing so provokes a telepathic fever storm!"
Jantiff was puzzled. "Fever storm?"
"Any susceptible nearby human will be telepathically influenced by the delirious Kerub who is suffering from over-heating."
Yōd nodded. "Yes, and so began the cases of humans going outside and freezing to death. The first such case reported soon after the first sightings of Kerub."
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| infites |
Yōd shook her head. "In the original timeline, Glisten made contact with the Kerub, which was dangerous because of her telepathic sensitivity. After a near-fatal encounter with the Kerub, Jantiff and Glisten escaped with their lives and returned to Zeck." She shrugged. "Maybe tomorrow you and I can go in search of the Kerub."
Glisten laughed. "We've been through this before. I'm not going to hide here, safe inside Snarlwood. I must go to the Kerub territory and make contact with individual Kerub."
Next: part 3 of "The Olivine Intervention"
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